Steven Nehl/The OregonianGreat horned owls live throughout Oregon and Washington.

I received a travel tip from IJw2184 that encouraged me to stop at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge along Interstate 5 just south of Salem.

I always love stopping at Ankeny, but this time I would be driving by in the middle of a hot late spring day. Not the best time for bird watching.

Instead, I have retrieved this previous blog post and hope to use it to do some bird watching in the fall along I-5 and elsewhere not too far from Portland.

Autumn is time for the annual spectacle of migrating birds, when the flocks wing their way south from the Arctic breeding grounds to wintering grounds in California, Mexico and beyond.

Lots of birds spend their winters around here, especially flocks of geese that are catered to with wildlife management techniques carried out on national and state refuges.

Here are six of the best spots within a day trip of Portland that offer prime-time viewing, from Ridgefield, Wash., on the Columbia River in the north to near Corvallis in the south end of the Willamette Valley.

There are a lot more places to look for birds (including your backyard). Nearly every American lives within a two-hour drive or less from at least one of the more than 550 national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Many refuges are planning special events as they celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week, now through next weekend.

The birds of autumn will soon be in the Willamette and Columbia valleys, with countless more expected to follow at the onset of November's big rains.Huge flocks of geese and ducks make winter homes in refuges and preserves, offering an easy-to-reach wildlife spectacle.

You will find more than just the familiar honking of Canada geese and quacking of mallards. Look for five-foot-tall sandhill cranes, snow-white trumpeter swans and great egrets, rainbow-hued wood ducks and the fleet falcons, hawks and eagles that stalk the marshes from the sky. Each puts on a show worth watching.

Grab a pair of binoculars, head to your nearest marsh, lake or river bottom to welcome the return of the birds from the north, whether they be passing through or plan to hunker down and wait for spring to arrive for their next trip north. Spending a day birding is cited as the No. 2 form of outdoor recreation, behind walking for pleasure, in numerous national surveys.

Steven Nehl/The OregonianThe Cathlapotle plankhouse at Ridgefield.

RIDGEFIELD NWR

Location: In Clark County's Columbia River bottomlands at Ridgefield, Wash., 10 miles northwest of Vancouver.

Size: The national wildlife refuge has 4,627 acres of marshes, grasslands, woodlands.

Drive tour: A 4.2-mile auto tour of the River S Unit, one mile south of town on Ninth Street, is open all year. Stay in your vehicle, except at the information kiosk and the viewing blind that was recently rebuilt by the Lions Club overlooking Rest Lake. Hunting is on most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (through late January), but it takes place beyond the boundary of the drive tour.

On foot: The two-mile Oaks to Wetlands Trail, open year-round in the Carty Unit one mile north of Ridgefield on Main Street, passes the new Chinook Indian Cathlapotle plankhouse.
Star quality: Two (hunting keeps the birds agitated)
Info: Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, 301 N. Third Ave., Ridgefield, WA, 98642; 360-887-4106, www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/

Location: Willamette River bottoms south of Salem, west of Interstate 5 at Exit 243.

Acres: The national wildlife refuge contains 2,796 acres of croplands, brush and seasonal wetlands between the Willamette and Santiam rivers.

Drive: Take Ankeny Hill Road northwest of the freeway, then follow county roads on a six-mile loop of the refuge. Prime viewing is from blinds on Buena Vista Road, at the platform in front of Eagle Pond and along Wintel Road. No hunting.

Walk: Wood Duck Pond trail open May through September; walks in winter are limited to paths that lead to designated viewing areas.

Drive: County roads make a 10-mile refuge loop. Finley Refuge Road crosses the northwest corner and Bruce Road crosses the south end east-west. Drive west from 99W on Bruce Road, passing McFadden's Marsh to a viewing area where scores of birds congregate. No bird hunting, deer hunting only.

Walk: Two short loop trails offer four miles of hiking: Woodpecker Loop and Mill Hill.

Location: On the Willamette Valley's west side, two miles west on Oregon 22 from Rickreall.
Size: The 2,492-acre national wildlife refuge comprises farmed fields, oak-covered hills, shallow wetlands.
Drive: Begin at the information kiosk on Oregon 22, then drive five miles around the refuge on county roads. Coville Road crosses the refuge east-west, offering good interior viewing, but most action is at the kiosk and South Slough Pond. No hunting.
Walk: Hike a 1.5-mile loop on the Baskett Butte Trail from the parking lot on Coville Road.
Stars: Three. Good wetlands viewing from the kiosk.

Where: The Columbia River island is 12 miles northwest of Portland on U.S. 30; headquarters is two miles across the new Sauvie Island Bridge on Sauvie Island Road.

Size: The state manages 11,840 acres of riparian flood plain, cultivated fields (about half the island) as a wildlife area.

Drive: All island roads offer wildlife viewing, so it's not necessary to concentrate on the designated "wildlife area" at the north end of the island. Reeder Road has four viewing platforms. Best viewing on a hunt day is Coon Point. Hunting is allowed on alternating days, so check before you visit. You will need buy a $3 permit (buy it at the island store) if you park at a state-managed wildlife viewing area.

Walk: Inland trails close for winter, but Columbia River beaches, Wapato Access and the 3.5-mile trail to Warrior Rock Lighthouse are open. Hunters have special access, so expect the sounds of shotguns. This keeps birds on the move and easy to spot. Remember, hunters do a tremendous amount of good for wildlife through their license fees and taxes of hunting equipment. The national wildlife refuge system would be a shadow of itself without this financial support. (Of course, President Teddy Roosevelt created the refuge system more than a century ago because of the rapid decline of some birds, shot for their plumage, but that's another story.)

Stars: Two (hunting keeps the birds fidgety); five after hunting ends in late January.

USFWSThe new visitor center at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.

TUALATIN RIVER NWR
Location: On the southwest edge of the Portland metro area, on the west side of Oregon 99W between Tualatin and Sherwood, in the bottomlands of the meandering Tualatin River.

Size: The national wildlife refuge has 1,400 acres of marshes, grasslands, woodlands, with a Congressionally approved expansion boundary to 3,060 acres as appropriate land becomes available for purchase.

Drive tour: The refuge is surrounded by county and city streets, which offer opportunities for wildlife viewing, but there is no designated driving tour route. The best experience is to park at the Wildlife Center and explore on foot.

On foot: The Wildlife Center, which opened this spring, is just north of Oregon 99W, a mile south of the Tualatin River Bridge. The 6,300-square-foot center cost $4.6 million, including the plaza, the adjacent office building and the wildlife viewing deck. During fall, there's a one-mile out-and-back path; when the migrating birds have gone, a seasonal three-mile trail is open May 1 through Sept. 1. Many refuges have limits on where humans can walk during winter so that the wildlife is not disturbed.
Star quality: Four (the Wildlife Center is the new star of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon for visitor and educational programs).
Info: Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, 16507 Roy Rogers Road (business office), Sherwood, OR, 97140; 503-590-5811, www.fws.gov/tualatinriver/. The visitor center is at 19255 S.W. Pacific Highway, Sherwood; 503-625-5945.

More hot spots: Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Southeast Portland; Jackson Bottoms Wetland, Hillsboro; Fern Hill Wetlands, Forest Grove; Steigerwald Lake NWR, Washougal, Wash.; Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, just off of I-5 north of Olympia; the five refuge system around Klamath Falls, worth a weekend trip or longer; anywhere on the Oregon coast, which also has many national wildlife refuges.

Seasons: Migration is September to November (southbound), March to May (northbound); waterfowl stay all winter.
Species: Flocks of ducks and geese; cranes and swans; raptors, including bald eagles; songbirds, shorebirds and wading birds; black-tailed deer, plus elk at Finley.

Hours: Best viewing early and late in the day, although mornings may be foggy.